A Day In The Life Of A First Lady

Rwanda is a global model for gender equality, and a stellar example of how communities can be mobilized for nationbuilding. In an exclusive interview with FORBES WOMAN AFRICA, the country’s First Lady, Jeannette Kagame, tells us how the 15-year-old Imbuto Foundation has been taking Rwanda and its people forward.

- Methil Renuka

When does a country become synonymous with its community?

Just visit Rwanda on the last Saturday of any month, and you will see it here, in this hilly East African country, where the masses – from ministers to farmers, shopkeepers to entrepreneurs – rub shoulders to become one harmonious, homogeneous entity, laying roads, digging the earth, planting trees, and cleaning gutters and drains, holding broom, shovel and spade.

The only thing that counts is the richness of the earth, the fresh mountain air and a united mission to keep the streets green and immaculately clean as a contribution to nation-building and improving the living conditions of the country’s 11.5 million citizens.

It’s on one such Saturday that FORBES WOMAN AFRICA is invited to travel upcountry to Rwanda’s verdant Rulindo district, past Kigali’s bustling traffic and up the winding roads when the city’s modest skyscrapers appear no match for the country’s magnificent hills.

It’s the day the country observes Umuganda, a home-grown initiative that requires people from all walks of life, villagers and city-folk, to congregate for community work, once a month, from 7AM to 11AM.

Today, most of the action is in this northern province, where schoolgirls in blinding yellow and pink uniforms, rural women in colorful African dresses, and men in gum boots, form neat lines to take their turn planting saplings in the fertile earth.

Today, they are also awaiting a special visitor, who will dig the earth with them, under the hot mid-morning sun.